I love Happy Plane. She is my poster horse for pixelated game-horse perfection. So when I stuck her in the breeding shed, I bred her to a frontrunner twice in hopes that I would have two really nice frontrunning powerhouses. Once it was to Little Eden -- the next time, to an original. I also bred her to Jayho.

The Little Eden colt came out of training an S and none worse for the wear. I had high hopes for him...until I saw his running style.

It was a closer!

It's not that I don't like closers. It's really not.

It's that I hate them with a vengeance that's the problem.

Secret Ending was the only closer I ever ran for the full length of a career, and while I did have a good career with him and he was thankfully good at NOT passing on his closer traits at stud, the others that I dabbled at I couldn't stand. I rode this colt, who has Little Eden's temper, through a few races and won one or two G1s with him, but he proved too much of a headache to stand, and I retired him.

Next June, when the Happy Plane x Jayho filly debuted, she was a preceder and I rejoiced. All was well with the world. She's currently working at the Wonderhorse title, and has set no less than ten track records, and is bordering on unstoppable. I love this horse, hehe.

The June after that, when my Happy Plane x Original debuted, he turned out to be a closer, too. This did not make me happy. But I ran him through a few races, and he seemed overall MUCH easier to handle than the Little Eden twister I got my reins on. :P I'm keeping him, but the problem is, I HAVE to run him out of position in order to have any hope of winning a race -- keep him at the back of the pack, and he's left there going down the stretch. He has no closer abilities to help him, and that hurts him a lot.

Does anyone else notice this from Happy Plane, this passing on of her closer ability? Has it been easier for you, or am I just too inexperienced with this type of horse?